Still in the Cheese State :D

The past two days have been food days. The second night I was here, we had this amazing steak dinner! It was fresh steak, not from a grocery storm, but from the family's cow stock (from the grandparents I think), and it tasted amazing! I never would have thought fat and meat went well together, but I ate the whole thing. We also had homemade corn, and carmelized carrots. The carrots weren't my thing but the corn was good.

The next day we went to the grocery store. We got ingredients for chocolate chip cookies, oatmeal chocolate chip cookies, Chocolate Rollo cookies, and Puppy Chow. I also managed to buy a really nice box of chocolates for the parents for when I leave (like I did last time with the Bilskis). We ended up making all of the above, plus a giant chocolate chip cookie-pie thing.

I of course had to try everything, and oh my god it was so much I felt sick afterwards lmao! What are Chocolate Rollo Cookies and Puppy Chow, you ask? I will tell you!

Chocolate Rollo Cookies have a piece of Rollo candy (caramel surrounded by chocolate), and chocolate dough is rolled around the candy. When it is fully baked, the candy flattens out to make a caramel inside. I wasn't very fond of it to tell you the truth. The chocolate chip cookies made up for it!

Puppy Chow is a very midwestern thing. The first time I tried it was way back at the beginning of the school year. Robby came in with a bag of it (from his girlfriend), and I asked him why he had a bag of dog food with him. That's what it seriously looks like. He had me try it and it was amazing! Puppy Chow is Chex Mix that has been covered in melted chocolate chips (or chocolate sauce), peanut butter, and finally powdered sugar. It is to die for!

I also went to church with Danielle's family, because at the Scholbrock house it is pretty much mandatory. I went and was surprised to find that it was Palm Sunday! Wow, I am so out of it! I had no idea! It was fun after mass to tie them into shapes (Danielle showed me how.) I really had the feeling that the priest was going to talk about the current Iowa Courts thing, but he didn't, and that made me so relieved.

After that we went out with the other church-going people and had breakfast at the diner that Danielle's sister Hannah works at. It was pretty good and was really cheap too.

Love,
Neil

Minneapolis

Bilski's house is amazing! Its really well decorated. There's a lot of wood in the house, and somehow having all those different types of wood, all dark, really combine to make the house look old world, yet newly designed. Its definitely someplace I wouldn't mind living in. It also balances nicely against the white walls, keeping the white from taking over like some houses (cough cough OURS cough. Im sorry, what?)

The lakes and ponds have started to freeze over. It looks really pretty. I want to go out on them so bad, but Alex says it's a bad Idea since Its not fully frozen yet. We did see 2 people skating on it, but apparently they have a death wish.

We went to the Mall of America today. I wanted to buy stuff, like a scarf, but every scarf I saw was either hella expensive or had frilly fronds/ ugly colors. We had lunch at this Italian restaurant and it was AMAZING!!! I've never had better strawberry lemonade or grilled chicken fettuccine alfredo. I was in heaven.

Then we went to this Nascar racing track game. It was a little fun, but the price was way over what I would have paid if I had been the one paying for it. It was a glorified video game.

Thats all folks!
Neil